By Liz Voosen
The clouds ahead of us were dark, hanging heavy over state highway 240. There was something special about them that triggered a memory from my midwestern childhood.
During springtime storms, my family would watch from the porch til the sky turned dark and green and the sirens went off, and we’d all run to the basement. We’d hear the roar of the wind, like a freight train going by, shaking the house. I remember going back outside after a tornado passed and seeing trees that had been picked up and tossed like toothpicks by the storm.
We had just left the town of Wall, South Dakota (home to the infamous Wall Drug store, noted on billboards for hundreds of miles of South Dakota highway I-90), and were headed to Badlands National Park. We were looking forward to catching the sunset over a lookout on the scenic drive in the park before reaching our campground for the night.
The wind had been strong all afternoon leaving Rapid City, but our Pleasure-Way OnTour 2.2 had handled it with no problem. Heading south out of Wall, we saw the line of ominous clouds in the sky ahead, hanging over the park just 10 miles away.
My phone alert buzzed loudly. Google Maps, routing us to the park entrance, said a tornado warning zone was in our path. Looking at the map, we were currently straddling the line on the map of tornado-possible and tornado-safe.
I have no desire to be in a vehicle or a flat campground if a tornado is going to roll through. So we made the tough call. We’d stay put near town and wait til the clouds moved further on, and we’d miss seeing the sunset in the park.
And I don’t regret our choice one bit. Instead of obsessively checking my phone and the sky all evening, we spent a wonderful few hours with a relaxing dinner and an unplanned adventure including scenic rock outcroppings of the same type in Badlands NP, prairie flowers, and an 80-foot-long concrete dinosaur.
Just off a two-lane road there is a gravel parking area situated far behind a Conoco gas station on Glenn Street. We drove as far back into the lot as we could. We wanted to park away from traffic and as close as we could get to the giant concrete dinosaur.
The brontosaurus was created by sculptor Emmett Sullivan, simply to grab folks’ attention from the interstate. It was commissioned by the town after the newly-built highway bypassed the town center, to encourage people to stop and shop. And indeed, there were several cars with tourists stopping and taking photos while we were there. It’s hard to miss an 80-foot-long green and white dinosaur!
Pull-off Picnic
Prairie Sunset Bowl
Ready in 10 minutes, only a fork (or two) to wash
This little detour presented an opportunity to eat a savory, warm meal. And I had the perfect minimal-prep, minimal-cleanup foods in the fridge to create a delicious dinner in 10 minutes.
While Zach set up the table at the couch for dinner, I got out from the fridge some precooked spicy ground chicken, a box of salad, and frozen cubed butternut squash.
For this meal, I used:
- Amylu’s Chicken Crumbles – Korean BBQ Style
- Urban Remedy Rainbow Salad
- 365 frozen cubed butternut squash
I picked these up at Whole Foods, but any major grocery store will have something similar.
Amylu’s chicken is precooked and seasoned ground chicken, and darn tasty. Urban Remedy’s colorful salad mix (that I can stretch across several meals) brightens up any cooked meal. The crunch and freshness of rainbow-colored veggies, accomplished without any chopping or washing, is a convenience I value while traveling.
Here’s how to prep it: a quick heat in the microwave for the chicken crumbles, a slightly longer heat for the squash. Then combine a serving of chicken, squash, and a generous handful of salad on each plate. Top the salad with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle the squash with cinnamon. (If you don’t have cinnamon handy, plain salt will work too.)
And yum! A flavorful, healthy, and low-carb dinner was ready in just minutes. And since we used paper plates to serve this meal, the only dishes to wash after were the forks. So we were water-efficient too!
What We Found at the Edge of the Lot
After dinner, the tornado alert was still in effect over the park (but not where we were), so we got out to explore.
While the dinosaur was fun, the true hidden gem started at the parking lot’s edge. A wooden bench overlooked a wild prairie, with ripply rock formations in the distance, and gorgeous skies above with ever-changing light and clouds from the storm. A footpath extended from it along one side of the field, making a big loop.
We walked the path and got a close look at several summer flowers, including the invasive white field bindweed, also known as “creeping jenny,” while birds chirped and the warm summer breeze rustled the grasses.
It was nearly summer solstice, so sunset was late at 8:30pm, with darkness falling around 10pm in South Dakota. We had plenty of time after dinner to stroll.
Like all good tornado weather, it moved on. A few hours later than planned, we got back on the road toward the park. We’d missed our sunset overlook, but we’d found a dinosaur, a prairie full of wildflowers, and a satisfying dinner. Not a bad trade.
Tornado season in the plains states isn’t something you can avoid completely if you travel in spring or summer. But with a flexible itinerary and a phone with weather details, you can usually outwait it or detour around it. And sometimes what’s waiting when Plan A doesn’t work out, turns out to be the best part of the day.
A weather tool I like: weather.gov has some of the best real-time radar and warning maps for tracking storms like this one. It’s worth bookmarking if you’re traveling during storm season.
